


A Day of Cheese and Feelings

by QueenThayet



Series: The West Wing: Queering the Narrative [4]
Category: The West Wing
Genre: Canonical references to infidelity, Drunkenness, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Related, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-26
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-08-17 11:51:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8142776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenThayet/pseuds/QueenThayet
Summary: Set within S2:E16 "Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail" aka the second big block of cheese day episode. How Josh is dealing with his boyfriend's emotional breakdown over the revelation of his father's long-term infidelity.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I was watching this episode to see if I could use it for a class and the shippiness was SO STRONG I just had to write a little version of the episode from Josh's POV. The dialogue bits from the episode are taken from the wonderfully helpful transcript on westwingtranscripts.com and the episode was written by Paul Redford & Aaron Sorkin.

Josh sat in the mess, watching Donna’s friend, well ex-girlfriend from college turned friend, ask Sam to add her grandfather to the Presidential Pardon list. Josh had planned to give Sam a heads up at home, except Sam hadn’t been home in several days. Ever since he found out that his asshole father had a second family. He’d been throwing himself into work, passing out on Toby’s couch when he couldn’t keep his eyes open a second longer. Josh knew that was Sam’s way of coping—that otherwise he wouldn’t be able to work at all—but it wasn’t healthy, and he was worried about his partner. It sounded like they were finishing up, so Josh walked over to the table where they were sitting.

“Hey, Steph,” Josh said casually.

“Hey, Josh,” Stephanie responded.

“You're across the street in five minutes,” Donna said, business-like.  

“Yeah.”

“I'm walking out with you,” Sam said to Josh. Josh nodded in response, waiting for him to get up. “Sam, thank you,” Stephanie said again.

“Yeah,” Sam said, his voice weary. They walked out of the mess together over to the stairs.

“You on the Gault thing?” Josh asked Sam, as if he didn’t know already. He wasn’t sure how to start this conversation, and Sam hadn’t been giving him any opportunities.

“Yeah,” Sam said. Josh knew he was tired because Sam, the king of ‘why use a sentence if you could use a paragraph’ was suddenly ruling monosyllableville.  

“That's nice of you. I appreciate that,” Josh said. He did appreciate Sam doing this favor for Donna. And technically he was doing it with Josh having even asked him ahead of time.

“Yeah. I'll give the Bureau a heads-up.”

“They're not going to be happy about it,” Josh said.

“No kidding,” Sam said, shooting a wry look at Josh.

“Did you know that Lincoln signed a pardon on the day he was assassinated?” Josh asked. Letting Sam show his trivia prowess was generally a good way to cheer him up.  

“Yeah,” Sam responded. Okay, normally Sam would have just run with it and explained the whole thing. Josh thought that Sam knew this story, but maybe not.

“You know the guy's name?” Josh pushed.

“Patrick Murphy,” Sam responded. So he clearly did know this, he just wasn’t biting.

“You know what he was pardoned for?”

“Being a Union deserter.”

“Am I annoying you?” Josh asked. 

“A little bit, yeah,” Sam said, an annoyed tone in his voice.

“I was trying to make you laugh,” Josh said.

“I appreciate that. Can I see your friend at the FBI?” Sam looked fondly at Josh for a moment before going right back to business.

“Yeah. Can I tell him why?” His friend at the FBI would not be thrilled, but he’d be even more ticked if he didn’t give him a heads up. It was also always better to get Sam a meeting as ‘my colleague who is working on a thing relevant to you’ rather than as ‘my boyfriend who needs a favor.’

“Yeah.”

A new thought occurred to Josh. “Hey, you want to have a lot of fun? Seriously. Sit in on C.J.'s meeting with the Organization of Cartographers for Social Equality.”

“Where's the social inequality in cartography?”

“I don't know. That's why I'm going.”

“You'll call the guy?” Sam double-checked, still focused on work.

“Yeah,” Josh said, accepting that was all he was going to get right now.

“Thanks,” Sam gave Josh a small smile, like he knew what Josh was doing, and he appreciated it. Josh knew that Sam was terrible about actually talking about his feelings (to be fair, Josh was equally as terrible, if not worse), so he’d take what he could get.  

“That a new shirt?”

“Yeah.”

“Nice.”

***

Sam didn’t come to CJ’s meeting with the cartographers for social equality, which might have been for the best, because it ended up being less hilarious and more mind-blowing. That was probably not what Sam needed right now, he thought as he walked over to where Toby was doing the WTO thing. Of course, instead of blowing it off, Toby had to go in and give an amazing speech and run an illuminating forum. The college kids who had been protesting looked stunned. Josh shook his head. These people he worked with! “Hey, want to come out and help me get Sam drunk tonight? He needs to get out of his head,” he asked Toby.

“Yeah, okay,” Toby responded. They walked back to the White House and saw Donna hugging Sam as they got to their offices.

“Hey...” Josh said as he walked into the office. “You should have seen Toby.”

“He was good?” Sam asked.

“He blew the doors off the place. Then I almost got killed.” Josh said stoically.  

“How?” Sam asked, shocked

“I got hit with a piece of a banana,” he admitted. It sounded less frightening when he said it like that for some reason.

“Let's go,” Toby said, insistently

“You know what you are? You are old school, my friend,” Josh said to Toby admiringly.

“Stop talking like that. Let's go,” Toby said, aggravated

“Let me tell you something, though,” Josh continued, trying to make Sam laugh. “That was the second time this year I almost got killed and both times I was with you so you're going to need a new wingman.”

“You were my old wingman?” Toby asked, incredulously.

“Yeah,” Josh said, as if it were obvious.

“Let's go,” Toby said again.  

“Where are you going?” Donna asked.

“Toby and I are going to get Sam drunk, and then put him to bed,” Josh responded. He hadn’t actually told Sam this plan, yet.

“I'll come,” Donna said, grabbing her coat.

“Let's go,” Toby said, clearly annoyed.

“I'm going to meet you there,” Sam told Josh.

“Yeah?” Josh asked, trying to tell him telepathically that he could wait if Sam wanted. Sam nodded. “All right,” Josh said. Sam was probably going to call his dad, which was good... probably, Josh thought. Or at least if it wasn’t, he’d get Sam good and drunk afterward. He told Donna and Toby to go ahead and grab a table while he waited outside the office for Sam to finish his phone call.

***

Later that night, after Toby had left and Josh had promised to get Sam home, and he was helping his extremely inebriated boyfriend up the stairs to his apartment, Sam turned to him and said “He was a spy.”

“What?” Josh asked, thinking he had misheard him while fumbling with his keys. Sam allowed himself to be manhandled into his apartment. He looked around, confused.

“This is my apartment,” he sounded lost.

“Yes, you were at my place when you got the call about your dad, and then you refused to come home for three days. I figured a change of scenery might be in order. Now what did you say?”

“He was a spy. Daniel Gault. He was a spy and a traitor. He’s not going on the OPA list, and he’s never getting a pardon. He was lucky he died in prison so he wasn’t executed for treason.”

“Oh my god, you didn’t tell Stephanie that did you? Of course you didn’t, Donna would have said. What the hell did you tell her?”

“I yelled at Donna. I should apologize,” Sam said, sounding sad.

“I yell at Donna on a regular basis. She knows. She doesn’t take it personally,” Josh brushed it off.

“You’re mean though. I should apologize. I yelled at her, and I was going to yell at her friend,” Sam meandered around his point in the way that only the exceedingly drunk can do.

“She knows, it’s okay Sam, she knows.” Josh wrapped his arms around Sam and held him tightly for a moment, before pulling him toward the bedroom. “C’mon, let’s put you to bed.”

“I called my dad,” Sam sounded broken as he let Josh start undressing him.

“How’d that go?’ Josh asked.

“I’m so mad at him. But it’s not his fault that he didn’t live up to the ideal I had in my head. I mean, it is his fault that he did what he did, but it’s not his fault that I had the idea, I mean,” Sam hiccupped as he tried to explain.

“Shhh, shh, I know, I know what you mean. It’s okay,” Josh ran his hands down Sam’s bare arms trying to calm him down.

“I’m such an asshole. Your dad isn’t even here to be mad at and I’m complaining about mine. And I yelled at Donna. I should call her and apologize.”

“Sam, it’s okay. You are not an asshole. Well you are, but not about this in particular. And I can tell you with absolute certainty that if you call Donna right now and wake her up, she will not be happy. And she will probably murder me for letting you call her at 2am.”

“Okay. Why’m’I undressed?”

“Because you need to go to bed. You need sleep,” Josh said, surprised at his own patience.

“Not for sex? Because normally when you take my pants off, it’s for sex.”

“Sam, no offense, but you’re so drunk, I don’t think are even capable of sex right now.”

“Hey, I can hold my liquor,” Sam protested.

“No you can’t, and even if you could, you wouldn’t just be holding your liquor right now, you’d be trying to hold your liquor, my liquor, Donna’s liquor, Toby’s liquor, and the guy on the other side of the bar’s liquor.”

“I don’t have that many hands. It would be hard to hold that much. I’d need a tray,” Sam responded philosophically, as if he had made a great revelation.

“Ooookay, we’ve reached the level of drunkenness where you no longer understand metaphor. You need to go to bed.” Josh helped Sam get into bed and under the covers. He tucked Sam in and pressed a kiss to his forehead, before getting up to wash up and find a set of his pajamas.

“Will you stay?” Sam asked, plaintively, reaching for Josh as he moved away.

“Of course, I was just going to go brush my teeth,” Josh said.

“No, stay.” Sam insisted.

Josh sighed. “Okay. Scoot.” He slipped his shoes off and got into bed next to Sam, who immediately cuddled up to him.

“Love you,” Sam murmured into Josh’s chest where he had buried his face.

“I know, Sam. Love you too.” Josh ran his hands through Sam’s hair, feeling the stresses of the week, and the exertions of the day, and the excessive alcohol consumption of the night pulling him toward sleep. Tomorrow was Saturday at least. They could get away with a half-day of work probably. It would be fine. 

 

 

 


End file.
